The University of Louisville football team seems to be in the perfect position to capitalize on a rush of good fortune. The Cardinals are entering a new and powerful league with a new and powerful coach, and their recent resume is extensive and impressive — a 23-3 record over the past two seasons, bowl wins over Florida and Miami, and three first-round picks in this year's NFL draft.

But six months into Bobby Petrino's second stint as head coach, the formula has yet to translate into palpable success on the recruiting trail. And on the surface, that's a bit puzzling.

The Cardinals are currently 56th in the Rivals.com team rankings for the Class of 2015 and 63rd on the 247sports.com list. They are behind teams like San Diego State, Rice, Wake Forest, Indiana, Western Michigan and Kansas.

This is a program that has done well to develop its national relevancy, even standing on the doorstep of becoming a bona fide power. And so it is worth asking if this recruiting slowdown is an aberration or something more concerning.

"The way recruiting goes is, you're never happy," Petrino said. "You work extremely hard at it. You keep banging away."

According to Brandon Huffman, a national recruiting analyst for Scout.com, the attractive recruiting setup at U of L is being negated by several factors.

Huffman believes Petrino has been a victim of negative recruiting, both by ACC schools and other regional universities. The competition can hammer at Petrino's tendency to leap from one job to another. Since his hiring in January, Petrino has said he is committed to staying here, but he has also acknowledged that his actions will speak loudest.

Huffman said it is also difficult to replace a recruiter like Charlie Strong, who had an efficient pipeline to Florida and its endless array of talent. But most of all, Huffman said, Petrino has simply been hampered by bad timing.

"The way recruiting has changed so much, you build relationships with guys early, going into their junior years," Huffman said. "(Petrino) had three or four weeks to shore up 2014, and then a year to start with 2015. Even though there was still a full year to get kids signed, a lot of those kids had been getting recruited already by other schools or other coaches. He was behind the 8-ball completely with 2014 and was still left hanging in a sense with 2015."

Of course, Mark Stoops faced similar disadvantages at Kentucky, but they did not seem to hamper him. Nevertheless, Petrino has been playing catch-up, and the numbers indicate that it has not been easy.

Yes, star-rating systems can be flawed. Rivals, for example, puts added emphasis on the quantity of commitments. And U of L's slim nine-player class will not resonate as strongly as, say, Western Michigan's current 18-player haul.

But when you narrow it down to average star rating, the stats are still unspectacular. With a 2.78 ranking per commit on Rivals, U of L ranks 52nd in the nation. There are no five- or four-star prospects in the current group.

Louisville's incoming freshman class, which includes a mixture of Petrino and Strong recruits, was ranked 40th by Rivals. That class, as is always the case after a coaching change, was reshaped by decommitments.

But Huffman gave Petrino credit for finding creative ways to combat his disadvantage. He has stormed into the junior college ranks and also lured impact transfers from schools like Georgia and Texas A&M.

"A lot of these guys are bounce-back guys that were highly recruited coming out of high school," Huffman said. "These aren't your late-bloomers. I think Petrino sees these junior college guys can fit the system in this stopgap year, where maybe recruiting was gonna be a little slow. It wouldn't be a surprise if he hit the JUCOs hard again, just as he tries to get his bearings straight and establish himself."

Petrino may not connect with recruits quite like Strong did, but he does have an unquestionable eye for talent and he knows what he needs for his system. The star-ratings of a website are hardly an end-all.

Yes, it is worth monitoring U of L's progress on the recruiting trail. But at this point there is no need to panic. After all, Petrino has yet to unveil what will likely be his most effective recruiting tool of all: his football team.